Judge Rules Man Within Rights to Record Traffic Stop

HARFORDCOUNTY, MD – In a decision that could make it easier for citizens to record police officers in Maryland, a Harford County judge ruled Monday that state police and prosecutors were wrong to arrest and charge a man for taping his own traffic stop and posting it on the Internet.

“Those of us who are public officials and are entrusted with the power of the state are ultimately accountable to the public,” Plitt wrote. “When we exercise that power in a public forum, we should not expect our activity to be shielded from public scrutiny.”

Plitt threw out four counts of the grand jury indictment against Anthony Graber dealing with the recordings he made with a helmet-mounted camera and posted to YouTube after he was stopped by a trooper in an unmarked car on an Interstate 95 off-ramp in March.

“This is one of the best days in my life that I’ve ever had,” Graber said Monday evening. “It’s such a huge relief, I can’t even explain.” The judge left intact only traffic violations that include speeding and reckless and negligent driving.

Plitt cited the videotaped recording of the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles and the explosion of “rapid fire information technology” to note that virtually anyone in a public place should expect their actions could be recorded and broadcast.

The judge wrote that Graber’s encounter “took place on a public highway in full view of the public. Under such circumstances, I cannot, by any stretch, conclude that the troopers had any reasonable expectation of privacy in their conversation with the defendant which society would be prepared to recognize as reasonable.”

The case was being closely watched to determine the limits of the state’s wire tap law, which critics contend was written decades before video cameras fit inside cell phones — even before cell phones — and was designed to prevent people from breaking into phone lines and secretly recording conversations.

Plitt “makes it crystal clear that the conduct Anthony engaged in was not and could not be a crime,” said David Rocah, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in Maryland, which defended Graber in court.

“I think it means that police officers around the state are on notice that it simply is not a crime to tape a police officer or any other public official engaged in the public performance of their duties,” Rocah said.

But Harford County State’s Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly said the ruling “will make it more difficult for the police to do their jobs” and warned that people armed with cameras might soon point their lenses at car accident scenes “and eavesdrop as police take medical history” from patients. Cassilly could appeal, but said on Monday that he had not yet read the judge’s ruling.

The video that Graber posted online showing the plainclothes trooper, J.D. Uhler, jumping from his sedan with his gun drawn quickly became a Web sensation. The trooper had pursued Graber, alleging he was recklessly speeding on the highway and passing cars on one wheel.